Do I hear a Fat lady singing?

I wont get ahead of myself here but a lot has been going on, and I am really buzzing at the thought of it all finally coming to and end.. or is that a beginning?

You may remember the rear bed crossmembers and how I thought they were a bit cobbed just having rubber under them. Well when I was in California I looked under a few truck and found that they all had plates under them, that sat on the rubber. So Hey that's what i did and welded some plate on. Now all was done, so just waiting on the bed to be painted.

It had been up the body shop for 5 weeks and no progress so i set about the wiring and a few little jobs that needed sorting.

I got some new door rubbers (original) and so gave them a trial fit and then tried to shut the door and thump them shut as hard as I could there was still a massive gap.... *Hum?*.. I think I will leave them for now.

So I finished the exhaust instead, now it was all mounted and painted *nice*. Just waiting for the bed now.

I prepped and painted the heater.

So many parts, I nearly didn't bother as you wont see any of it, but I just had to didn't I.

Seems easy now it is all back together and looks excellent I am so glad I took the time to do this.

I could put it off now longer I had to attack the wiring. I had bought a kit from Kerry Tate yonks ago and everyone says how easy they are to fit.... er yeah right! Maybe if you have done one or two before, but me I have done fuk all before so it was scary... but also very exciting to. I mounted the fuse box and then laid out, the interior wires, the engine wires and the not to be used wires and then had a cup of coffee.

First things first I did an easy wire, the washer bottle. I went to the NASC swap meet and on my list was a washer bottle, I bought this from Pop Brown.

I wired it to my switch, routed the washer pipes and filled it with water. And the friggin thing fell off its bracket. *hum?*

I checked the bracket and you could pull it off the bottle as shown above with very little effort *Bugger*

So I had to come up with a solution, I fitted some rivnuts to the bracket as above and then plastic metalled the bottle to the bracket.. Viola! No photo of the bottle as it set before I could make it neat so it looks shit... so I am not showing ya it ok! ;o)

The bed was now being put into paint and they did my dash pod for me and very nice it looks to. I love this and I have never seen it done before, 6 Gauges in a std pod.. Cool..

The wiring looks hellish but wasn't to bad, common earth, power, lights and then just the sender wire. I did add indicator, brake fluid level and hi-beam to just make it a bit more complicated.

Looks cool sat in the full dash.

Oh yeah fitted the dash defrost nozzle's and they fit so crap I had to use mastic to fill the gap so they would do their job. Then they were screwed into place and tubed joined them to the heater.

I seemed to be jumping from one job to another, though it did seem methodical at the time (easy first hard last) The original Jag indicator switch didn't work, the head light flasher was non functional and there was a wire broken to. I soldered the wire back on and then took it to pieces to see what I could sort. it was basically just cleaning it needed. With slight adjustment to the connections and springs to make it work as it did when new.. I best get a photo of it fitted eh!

I wired in thermostatically controlled relay switch for the fans.

This is the vaporizer mounted for the LPG and needs just one live wire from LPG switch to work and the heater pipes must route through it to get the liquid LPG vaporized. (full section on lpg fitting to come)

The running boards where painted so I had to fit them didn't I. I first cut some thin rubber to lay between the board and stays.

Starting to come on a bit now.

I then fitted some alloy and stainless runners which look ace and will protect against knob heads who let their kids stand on them.

Oh and the rear panel was painted to.... I am on quite alot more than this but will do more photos later. I am working all I can to get it done for Billing. The wiring is all but done and the bed is all painted. The motor is all ready to run, but wont as I have no spark at the plugs.. so I have yet to find out what is up. But I am making progress.. still loads to do and sort.. it is doing my nut in. yet I am very excited. O and I have really enjoyed wiring it, though I have yet to tidy all the wiring I am not looking forward to that bit of the build but we are nearly there.. now where is that Fat Lady.

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